MotoGP

BRILLIANT RACE FOR THE ROOKIE RINS - 8TH IN MISANO GP

Team Suzuki Press Office – September 10.

Alex Rins: 8th / +34.662
Andrea Iannone: DNF

The rain arrived in Misano Adriatico at the beginning of race day, making a mess of the whole situation. The wet conditions rewarded an effective and mature Alex Rins, who took 8th place. This is also his best result of the season so far. Andrea Iannone suffered a problem with his arm which forced him to retire before the end of the race.

Starting from 20th place, Alex Rins did not have a perfect jump at the start. He found himself in last place after the first corner. However, the excellent pace he set from lap 2 on was as fast as the riders at the head of the race. This allowed him to advance many positions. The wise management of the race in the second half was crucial to make his way into ninth place and then go for the eighth in the very last corners.

Despite a positive warm up, where he was feeling good with the GSX-RR in wet, the race proved to be a hard one for Iannone. Immediately after the early laps he started to have problems with an arm pump that made his forearms too stiff to maintain mobility. In these conditions he was not able to safely ride his machine and decided to retire before the end of the race.

Ken Kawauchi – Technical Manager
“Finally the bad weather helped us. Alex did a very good job; he was able to adapt very well right from the warmup, and also in the race he kept a very good pace. 8th position is a great result, the best in this season. I want to thank him very much. Unfortunately Andrea could not finish the race, which is a real shame because his effectiveness on a wet track was good. I hope the next time he will get a good result. The truth is that this weekend we struggled a lot in dry conditions. This is a fact and we have to face it and find a solution. We will stay here in Misano tomorrow and Tuesday for some private testing. We have many new items, some of them for immediate use for the rest of the season and others for the longer term, for the next season. We will be looking for the missing piece to a better performance.”

Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“We can be very happy for Alex’s race. He’s been excellent in very difficult conditions. He started from the 20th place and recovered many positions. The race was very difficult and it was easy to make a mistake. Considering that he´s a rookie, he’s been very good in the management. The pace in the middle of the race was as fast as the top riders; this makes us proud of him. Sadly we’ve not been very lucky with Andrea. He had a problem at his forearms that forced him to retire from the race. It’s a real shame but we keep positive. Tomorrow if the weather is good, we will have one day of testing here in Misano with some new items. For us it is important to prepare well for the final five races of the season, and also to think about 2018, in order to find a more effective and consistent performance in dry conditions.”

Alex Rins
"I’m happy about this result. During the whole weekend we struggled in dry conditions, but on wet we did a very good job. After the start I found myself in last position. It was a problem with visibility, with all the water kicked up by the other riders ahead of me. Little by little I managed to recover positions, setting my own pace. I saw I could get up to the 9th position and settled behind the rider ahead, where I waited until the last lap to attempt the challenge for 8th place. Then in the last corners we crossed lines with another rider and I lost some ground, without a chance to recover further. My team prepared a fantastic setup for the wet, despite only lapping for 20 minutes in this morning’s warmup.”

Andrea Iannone
“Sadly I had a problem in my arm. I decided to wear the rain suit for the race, which actually proved to be too tight, obstructing the blood flood to the arms, so right after two or three laps my forearm started to pump and get rigid, preventing me from riding properly. I was never able to open the gas full-throttle, and then I also lost responsiveness with the brake. It’s a shame because the machine was performing well and had good potential. I’m sorry for Suzuki because we could have taken advantage of these conditions.”